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demoleft's Journal - EuroDem from Italy
hello everyone! nice to be here on DU again :)
so the italian government led by Prodi vanished like late spring snow.
it shared with late snow the feebleness and the cold among the coalition associates.
there's our Senate president now attempting to make a new government that should only make a new electoral law - to replace the present, that leads to feeble majorities and impossibility to govern.
the attempt is weak. the rightist coalition (led by Berlusconi and some other 50-60 year old "l...
This is from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction:
the Annual report 2007: the state of the drugs problem in Europe
Europe was never so "intoxicated" as this time. Cocaine and psychoactive drugs involve people from 11 on.
Beautiful portrait of a continent that reminds me the last years of the Roman Empire.
Still better figures than US (thanx also to preventing policies), but this is not enough.
Differently from the 60's and 70's (which is just comparative, not justifying...
Italy. The Primaries of the Democratic Party gave birth to the PD.
Lately...
...ve've been having comedians turned populist leaders - in Italy "populist" is meant in a negative sense;
...we've been having opposition leaders (rightists allied to Mr.Berlusconi) making jokes and getting sarcastic about the event;
...we've been having bloggers and left parties waiting the event with less curiosity than envy.
The event came at last, October, 14 2007: the Primary Election for the Democratic Party.
...
"HIV-infected condoms sent to kill Africans, claims archbishop", titles The Guardian of 27 September 2007.
Perhaps you've had on your boards yesterday. I haven't been able to stay on DU lately, not as much as I'd have liked. So I probably missed it and you have got it.
Otherwise here it is:
'Mozambique's Roman Catholic archbishop has accused European condom manufacturers of deliberately infecting their products with HIV "in order to finish quickly the African people".
The archbishop of Maputo...
Source: Al Jazeera
Italians have taken part in a one-day pasta boycott in protest at a rise in the price of their favourite dish sparked by a global crisis in wheat prices.
The cost of wheat has risen by almost 50 per cent in the past year, as droughts in Australia and Canada cut production, pushing global stockpiles towards a 26-year low.
Consumer groups say the price rises are due to middlemen, while farmers' earnings stay the same, activists said at protests in Rome, Milan and Palermo. ...
"Money urgently needed to reduce the vast backlog of inquests into soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan has not been provided by the government, raising fresh fears that existing delays will grow longer.
Despite pledges to cut the time military families must wait for an inquest, the coroner with responsibility for the issue has still to receive extra cash months after ministers promised that it would be made available.
Since assuming responsibility for deaths of British soldiers in Afghanis...
"Two British soldiers killed in southern Afghanistan have been named by the Ministry of Defence.
Sergeant Craig Brelsford and Private Johan Botha, from 2nd Battalion, The Mercian Regiment, were killed during a firefight with Taleban insurgents.
The soldiers died in an operation against the Taleban in an area south of Garmsir, in Helmand province.
A number of other soldiers were injured in the "heavy firefight", including two who remain in a serious condition." (my bold)
BBC, (Link)
Goodbye ...
The Thin Red Line (movie released 1998).
Two soldiers in the Second W.W., the eve of a deadly fight, a mutual spiritual exchange:
First Sgt. Edward Welsh: In this world, a man, himself, is nothing. And there ain't no world but this one.
Private Witt: There you're wrong, Top. I've seen another world.
First Sgt. Edward Welsh: Then you see things I've never seen.
Well I'm with Private Witt: I've seen another world, too.
What about you, DUers?
The Thin Red Line, (Link)
I see from many threads and posts here that the Primary Elections are causing struggles and divisions in the Democratic Party.
I worry about that.
Though it is common during the Primaries, I would not go as far in the struggle as to lose sight of your common target: to win Presidency and put Reps out of office.
In 2005 we, Italian progressives, had a similar situation.
This is what happened in Italy, the world's political laboratory where every Mr.Hyde may come to life...
Berlusconi's centre-r...
"Europeans overwhelmingly support Hillary Clinton in her bid to become the next US president, according to a poll published today.
The poll, conducted in Britain, France, Germany and Italy, put Barack Obama, her main rival, in a distant second place.
Her high ratings in Europe may reflect her greater name recognition from her time as First Lady. The election campaign is still at an early stage and many of the candidates are relatively unknown outside the US. About half of those questioned in Br...
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
Real median household income in the United States climbed between 2005 and 2006, reaching $48,200, according to a report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. This is the second consecutive year that income has risen.
Meanwhile, the nation’s official poverty rate declined for the first time this decade, from 12.6 percent in 2005 to 12.3 percent in 2006. There were 36.5 million people in poverty in 2006, not statistically different from 2005. The number of peopl...
Source: AFP
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The largest civil rights organization of American Sikhs has expressed outrage at a new US airport security policy that it said allows arbitrary searches of turbans, a sacred headdress for members of the religion.
The Sikh Coalition said Saturday it had been informed by the Transportation Security Administration that under its new guidelines, turbans could be subject to manual pat-downs even if their wearers had passed a metal detector test.
"Telling screeners ...
Source: BBC
A Palestinian football team has been banned from playing in Britain, because officials apparently believe they will not return to Gaza.
The Gaza under-19s team had been invited to play British football clubs Chester City and Blackburn Rovers.
The team's visa applications were rejected after every member failed to meet entry criteria, said a spokesman for the British consulate in Jerusalem.
...
Tour organiser Rod Cox, from Chester, said the ruling was unfair, as the players had...
Source: BBC
President George W Bush has warned a US withdrawal from Iraq could trigger the kind of upheaval seen in South East Asia after US forces quit Vietnam.
"The price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens," he told war veterans in Missouri.
Mr Bush said the Vietnam War had taught the need for US patience over Iraq.
...
"The ideals and interests that led America to help the Japanese turn defeat into democracy are the same that lead us to remain engaged in ...
Source: BBC
The Vatican is to launch a low-cost charter flight service to transport pilgrims to holy sites worldwide.
The inaugural flight on 27 August will go from Rome to Lourdes in France.
A small Italian airline, Mistral, will provide the planes, with the interiors decorated with sacred inscriptions such as: "I search for your face, Lord."
The BBC's David Willey in Rome says religious tourism is already big business, with some 200 million Christian pilgrims expected to visit holy plac...
Here we go again.
Who must face the jail?
The prostitute? For what? For a personal choice?
The "customer"? For what? For a personal choice?
The law causes protests as it seems "designed" for "lost" women to save.
Who's going to save the lost "hooked" ones?
I mean - those highly respected gentlemen who are back to their families after the "break"?
"The government was last night accused of turning the clock back 25 years by introducing a law that will allow courts to imprison prostitutes who ...
Rediscovered Treasures from Afghanistan.
Rediscover Afghanistan - its culture, its past, partly its Hellenistic greek side that links to our own heritage.
Rediscover the beauty, the poetry obscured by war and bombings.
Rediscover the civilization, and wipe off Talibans atrocities.
To declare what Afghanistan was, and is.
"A NATION STAYS ALIVE WHEN ITS CULTURE STAYS ALIVE".
It's written on a modest flag, black ink on white, at the entrance of Kabul National Museum.
Now this all is in Turin,...
I'm just now reading this in The Guardian and I want to share with you. It's about a musical presented at the Edinburgh Fringe, and that has caused upset and even a petition addressed to Downing Street:
The story.
"Jihad: The Musical tells the story of a 'hapless Afghan peasant' who falls into the hands of would-be jihadi terrorists and includes barnstorming numbers such as 'I Wanna Be Like Osama' alongside the more romantic 'I Only See Your Eyes'. The content of the show may well be irreverent...
Turkey: some hopes to save Roman site Allianoi from dam flood. (Title edited!)
A roman city, modernized during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (AD 117-138). A "Class A archaeological site".
This is Allianoi.
Some pics of it here: (Link)
It's heritage, It's memory. It's common root with the western culture.
It's a bridge between East and West, a common story each one can tell his kids. Shared story over divides.
Moreover, it could make a good historical archaeological site dedicated to chosen high-quality tourism.
EuropaNostra, joined by the European Associatio...
I posted something in a blog about the controversial changes in the weather occurring all over the world.
I suggested that maybe the Panel scientists were not wrong: Global Warming is here.
I was almost overwhelmed by deniers and skeptics saying it was just another way to drain people's pocket with new taxes.
(What the hell did that mean I don't know).
Now it's just time to make a list of the strange climate behavior in many places and ask deniers to start justifying it.
It's not about disaster...
Every now and then they're back. With their sticks, dark clothes resembling their miserable minds and lives, metal pipes in their fists.
Every now and then they strike. In Italy (where a group of leftist people were beaten in a park after a concert) some weeks ago, now and again in Russia.
"Attack on nuclear demonstrators in Russia leaves 1 dead", was the International Herald Tribune title some days ago.
"Witnesses say the attackers shouted nationalist slogans as they rampaged through the fore...
"If happy little bluebirds fly / Beyond the rainbow / Why, oh, why can't I?"
Does it go like this?
My American uncle gave me a record with Judy Garland's greatest and I, obviously, fell in love with her interpretation of "Over the Rainbow" (together with "For Me And My Gal" to be honest).
Well, I'm not against technology. I like it. But birds - I would not have them faked. Moreover, I had a literary historical Bildung. I like Keats' birds, give me tens of Dickinson's birds and thousands from L...
The first story is about The Big Ask March (Friends of the Earth), and is reported by the New Statesman here (Link)
The March online is here,fantastic idea which I had no notion of until yesterday: (Link)/
"Thousands of people", says the Statesman, "are expected to join celebrities including Jude Law, James Blunt and Razorlight’s Johnny Borrell on The Big Ask online march, which is calling for a tough new climate change law. The campaign, which also features a new advert by leading director Ke...
It's not what he claims to have said, though.
In an interview in LA he told an Italian newspaper he was misunderstood in Cannes, where his cruel judgment on Italian contemporary cinema angered many in my Country. He had just answered a question about the Italian Cinema Industry, that he judged sad, or just depressing.
Excuses made, what's left is a terribly true statement: the italian movies engage in private tragedies, in soft reflections on human nature that, to me, are in tragic contrast wi...
Have a nice day, French friends on DU.
I celebrate it every year, though I'm Italian and here it's just another day.
I always loved this event in the French Revolution, its meaning, its outcomes for modern Europe.
The investigation on the event (1790), according to Georges Rudè, reported that the heroes were not only desperate miserable people, but 954 among artisans, craftmen, workers from Faubourg Saint-Antoine. People who had a place and were integrated with their society - people who, in a...
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released the "RESPONSES TO SOME QUESTIONS REGARDING CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE DOCTRINE ON THE CHURCH".
If it was just "aspects of the doctrine" I would have published this in another forum.
But since the reactions among the Christian religious leaders and some laicists are of an upset nature and since it is the next step back to a reactionary, conservative turn for the Roman Church in a period of religious tensions - I'd say it deserves be discussed ...
A step closer to my dream: the Italian Democratic Party and Dean's Dems planning things together like a true international movement for democracy and justice.
The American tour, part of the so called Workshops in the world and organised by my Party (Democratic of the Left) and Italians in the world, started in NY and ended in Washington (26-27 June 2007).
Dean had been invited in Florence Italy, last April, by my Party. He spoke in our last congress and was much applauded.
Here it is: (Link)
...
The Middle East and Africa are burning, immigrants die while trying to reach the Italian coasts, democracy finds a hard way through, every day, but no movie director nor any writer in Italy seem to care.
Sign of the times.
Political disengagement is a must and soon becomes fashion. It's back to the 80s.
I just watched an Italian movie from the 50's.
At the time Anna Magnani was the counterpart of Anita Ekberg: one represented Italy on its knees after the II World War, the other the Dolce Vita,...
It's not the first time. In my region a leftist local political leader was caught in a similar embarassing situation after defining women and gays in the worst words.
But he was spared the internet video streaming of his fall.
Not so for Patrick Devedjian, UMP senior leader in France, who was caught saying "salope", "That bitch!" to an opponent female colleague, centrist Anne-Marie Comparini. He was filmed and straightly sent on the internet.
Here is the video: (Link)/
Here is the BBC article:...
It happens sometimes.
You go to a concert of an old rock star and he doesn't sing the old ones, your beloved ones.
He's grown so tired of them and, mostly, they have no touch with the new generations of people.
You are upset but what are you going to do? Time goes by, things change. New songs replace the old ones.
But the voice - the spirit - is the same.
Ratzinger is an artist who never betrays his fans. The Mass in latin, with other old accessories, is going to be set as a recommended part o...
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Profile Information demoleft
698 posts Member since Mon Apr 23rd 2007 Howard Dean in Italy, April 2007
Dean invited at the last Congress of the Italian Democratic of the Left party (DS), that is going to dissolve and create, with progressive partners, the Democratic Party in Italy. As leader of the Democratic Party in the USA, he said, I congratulate with you for your decision to create a new Party. This is a really historical moment for the Italian people. The Democratic Party in Italy will grant a more stable progressive government and to the American democrats will mean a bigger partner in Europe. Dean recalled the Italian history, culture, cuisine (!) and sport, mostly our soccer team (“azzurri”, we are world champions since last July - let me say!) Comparing the work made in Italy by DS and Margherita (Daisy) in creating the strongest core of the UNIONE, the alliance that defeated Berlusconi, and the effort made by the American Democratic Party, he said that USA democrats made the decision of uniting to defeat the far republican right wing. United, added Dean, working hard we won in 2006: today we are majority at the Congress and Senate. He remembered Nancy Pelosi, of Italian origin, and the teachings in governance of Bill Clinton and his efforts to give USA a new profile in the world. A word for France to make a step forward was spent: an indirect “good luck” to Segolene Royal, the socialist candidate as President. Really appreciated by the DS delegates was the portrait of the future democratic America: it’s time to leave Iraq, said he, and it’s time to change USA relationships with the rest of the world. According to Dean, we have to fight for the respect of human and civil rights. A new political course is necessary with the Muslim world: it’s going to take a long time but a bridge with the Muslim people who work on democratic efforts in their countries must be built. On Global warming he said it is an actual matter and the poorest are the ones who will pay the highest price. To negate the problem is useless, USA must work with Europe to solve this problem. The progressive parties unite, told Dean, because they are parties of the “we”. The right wing parties are parties of the “I”. The power doesn’t belong to us, he added, it’s only lent to us. So must we always communicate with the people both in traditional and new ways. I can say, we democratic of the left enjoyed the words very much! Visitor Tools
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